If social media marketing is part of your overall marketing strategy (and it should be!) you know that it can be difficult to get an audience’s attention with the same old social media outlets. Asking questions that have few responses or trying to write posts with personality is no easy task. Lucky for you, a burgeoning new social media platform can help reinvigorate your online presence. Twitter is the owner of the fun and easy social video sharing app Vine. The app was just released in 2013 for iOS users and has recently been made available for Android operators. So what makes Vine standout? The app allows subcribers to upload 6 second videos that can be shared to their Vine feed, Facebook and Twitter. With sound capabilities and video looping Vine is a unique social media tool that can get your audience’s attention with creative video imagery.

Here are 5 reasons Vine can be helpful in marketing your business.

1. Visually appealing

You don’t have to be a Photoshop pro to show off your brand. A creative 6 second video can be produced with simple clicks of your smartphone. Filtered photos with dull captions are a thing of the past as your Vine video can include many unique elements that loop over and over. From drawing and painting to constructing text out of food, the possibilities are endless.

2. Start a conversation

Since Vine videos can be embedded into Twitter feeds or Facebook it’s even easier to produce a trending topic. Not only will your business show their creative side but your audience can as well by asking a question that can then be answered through their own uploaded videos.

3. Show off a product/service

This may be the most influential use of Vine as your audience can literally see what your company has to offer. A 6 second video clip of a new item or a quick scene of your employees hard at work beats reading the usual About page on the company website.

4. Cliff Hanger

Getting your audience to return can be done by creating a series of related videos. The power of the looping video can be used to capture your audience’s attention and build anticipation for an upcoming promotion or event.

5. Be seen

6 seconds is not a lot of time so make it count. Vine can allow your audience to see your company and brand outside of the boring world of text content. The audience can see your company wish them a good morning or feel the excitement of a Friday afternoon. So don’t be afraid to make a connection when your business uses Vine.

John Gumas is the Founder and President of Gumas Advertising, a San Francisco advertising agency that has been providing branding, advertising and marketing services for challenger brands since 1984.

With the proliferation of social media networks, it is understandable if you are a little confused about what they are and how to use them. Well, we know that the Internet is run by cats, so we might as well turn to our cat overlords friends for an explanation of social meowdia…I mean social media.

This great infographic suggests how you would use (from left to right) Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Yelp, Google+, Spotify and Foursquare to share posts related to your cat.[Read more…]

To keep your Twitter followers engaged, you need to keep a stream of tweets coming their way. Unlike blogging or social media, on Twitter you have to come up with something new several times a day. Active Twitter users may post 10 to 20 times a day or more. So what should you tweet?

Here are ten ideas you can use to come up with things to share on Twitter.

1. Recommend a Useful Resource
Is there a particular article, book, workshop, DVD, YouTube video, magazine or other resource that you’d recommend? Post a link to that resource, along with a description of what you liked about it.[Read more…]

Ever wonder how people make those cool characters that you see in email subject lines, texts, Tweets and elsewhere? Wonder no more!

Characters such as the ones you see in the image at the left can all be created with HTML codes or by simply copying and pasting them. You will find a large collection of interesting and fun characters at CopyPasteCharacter. Simply choose the character you want, click on it to copy, then paste it into your message. There is even an app for your iPhone, available for just $.99.

The site features several sets of characters, including arrows, mathematical, punctuation, numerals, currency and more. The symbols set includes everything from umbrellas to stars, musical notes, chess pieces, recycling codes, flowers, zodiac signs and lots of others.

The “Our Favorite” set has many popular symbols or you can set up a free account and save your own set of favorites.
Have fun—but don’t get carried away!

☺☻☹☼☂☃⌨☮♪❤☆♬

Social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed and others, enable us to interact with people we know well and those we have never met IRL (In Real Life). My husband refers to my online friends as my “imaginary friends,” but I know more about my imaginary friends than he does about some of his “real life” friends.

If you feel isolated because you are working alone, social media sites can seem like a lifeline to other humans. They can also be a way to make connections with new customers, influencers and others who can help your business grow. Too often, though, I see people make simple mistakes that harm their reputations, rather than helping.